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The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), recommends Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) as a first line treatment for a number of mental health conditions.

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CBT was developed in the 1970s by Aaron Beck as a way of correcting cognitive distortions and maladaptive behaviours. It has become widely used for the clinical purpose of reducing, managing, or preventing symptoms of mental health conditions for individuals to put into practise, in order to improve their overall well-being by altering their thinking and learning different ways of coping with symptoms and difficulties. It employs a range of specifically tailored techniques to increase its efficacy. Possibly what it is most commonly used for in a clinical setting is to treat Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), which puts into practise just one bespoke area of it's implementation.

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When you have Depression it interferes with daily life, causing loss of motivation and confidence. It is a common but serious illness, however, the great majority of sufferers can recover with treatment using CBT.

A key strength in using CBT to treat Depression is it's structured nature. It uses specific treatment goals, with a clear treatment process, tracking progress and helping individuals to progress from having thoughts of hopelessness and helplessness, to gaining a sense of control and direction. There are numerous CBT techniques for the treatment of Depression, but they fall broadly into two categories, Cognitive Techniques and Behavioural Techniques.

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Cognitive Techniques enable the sufferer to understand and learn to modify the cognitive distortions that are such a major factor in Depression. These are commonly  thoughts of self-criticism, worthlessness, hopelessness, helplessness, and a tendency to  dwell on over past failures; the problem being, that the sufferer believes them and will revisit that thinking time and time again, with devastating effect on their mental state. Gaining the ability to counter these helps to reduce symptoms significantly whilst reducing vulnerability to future relapse.

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Behavioural Activation and Activity Scheduling are the cornerstone of Behavioural Psychotherapy for Depression. Their purpose is to counteract the inertia and withdrawal associated with the condition. They are among the best CBT interventions in mental health treatment research, with outstanding outcomes and low relapse rates.
When people become Depressed they naturally do less and withdraw from rewarding activities and social interaction. The lack of stimulus and rewarding activities then serves to maintain the Depressive state and it becomes significantly worse. Behavioural Activation is an intervention intended to break this depressive feedback loop through Activity Scheduling. However small the activities may be, they tend to create the momentum which has disappeared as a result of the depressed mood, and this in turn energises and encourages individuals to identify and engage in more rewarding and meaningful activities.
Even if individuals have lost all motivation, Behavioural Activation creates a sense of vitality and accomplishment. Structured Activity Scheduling is pivotal in recovering rapidly from Depression, as well as being critical in relapse prevention and management. Given the relapsing nature of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), this makes CBT the gold standard for treatment of MDD.